The present invention relates to devices for injecting, delivering, dispensing, infusing or administering a substance, and to methods of making and using such devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to a portable or wearable or implantable or semi-implantable medical device, in some embodiments, a pocket-size or less than pocket-size medical device, such as, for example, a wearable, pocket-size insulin infusion pump. The invention further relates to methods for operating and/or controlling such a medical device.
Portable medical devices, for example pocket-size devices that can be carried on the body of a person, are known. One example is insulin pumps for the external infusion pump therapy for people with diabetes. Other such portable, pocket-size devices are blood glucose measurement devices or diabetes management devices (DM) also used in diabetes treatment. It is already known to provide a remote controller for insulin pumps, so that certain functions can be operated by remote control, helping the user to control a pump that is concealed under his clothing (WO 2000/018977). However, such a remote control is a dedicated additional part or device that has to be carried by the user of the pump and the functionality of such a dedicated remote control is limited.
In hospital environments with wired networks or wireless local area networks (WLAN) it has been proposed recently to provide a separate web server box to link a stationary hospital infusion pump and an oxymeter to the network, so that a remote personal computer could monitor a patient's status.